Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper, who resigned at the end of the Obama administration, was allegedly caught lying about leaking the Steele dossier to CNN, according to a report by the House Intelligence Committee.
Clapper reportedly admitted during a July 2017 deposition he leaked the dossier in early Jan. 2017 with CNN’s Jake Tapper, who will moderate Thursday’s first 2024 presidential debate, according to RealClearInvestigations.
The report states Clapper initially “flatly denied ‘discuss[ing] the dossier [compiled by Steele] or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists.” However, the former DNI eventually “acknowledged discussing the ‘dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper’” upon further questioning, according to the outlet.
Just an incredible sequence of events here.
-Clapper lied in a deposition about leaking very dubious intel to CNN
-Clapper then admitted he did it
-Tapper won a journalism award for running a credulous story on the leak
-Clapper also misled the public about the leak, claiming… pic.twitter.com/peOcrEtRMj— Emily Jashinsky (@emilyjashinsky) June 26, 2024
CNN published Tapper’s now-debunked Steele dossier story on Jan. 10, 2017, which secured him the Merriman Smith Award for broadcast journalism in 2018. Tapper has yet to correct the record regarding the false allegations he peddled accusing presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of colluding with Russia to win the 2016 election. (RELATED: ‘Come On, Just Relax’: Donald Trump Says ‘Locking Up’ Hillary Clinton Would ‘Have Been A Terrible Thing’)
Clapper released a statement deceptively aligning himself with Trump the next day. The former DNI described a phone call with the then-president in which he said he “expressed [his] profound dismay at the leaks.” Clapper also called Tapper’s story “corrosive and damaging to our national security” and emphasized that “I do not believe the leaks came from within the IC.”
CNN hired Clapper as a national security analyst in Aug. 2017.
Clapper was also among the 51 former intelligence officials who signed a letter in Oct. 2020 stating that the Hunter Biden laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Failed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) paid a $113,00 fine for failing to report that the now-debunked Steele dossier was funded through the Perkins Coie law firm.
